José Mourinho had three summer windows during his time at Manchester United and the Portuguese tactician signed a defender in each of those.
Victor Lindelöf was one of them and the Sweden international arrived at Old Trafford from Benfica in 2017. The centre-back struggled in his debut season, when he was restricted to only 17 appearances in the league.
However, things changed for the 25-year-old in his second campaign with the Red Devils and he started featuring regularly under Mourinho and even retained his place in the starting lineup after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced the former Chelsea manager.
Mourinho is without a club since United sacked him in December and Lindelöf is eagerly waiting to see the manager return.
“He is, after all, one of the world’s best coaches and he is supposed to have a job at one of the biggest clubs. I miss him in football,” the Swede said during a lengthy interview with Aftonbladet.
“He’s a great coach and a great person, whom I owe a great deal. It was he who gave me the chance here, who brought me into everything. I have all the respect in the world for him and appreciate everything he has said and done for me, from scolding to a hug.”
When questioned if Mourinho was right to criticise him, Lindelöf responded: “Yeah. Even if I did not agree, at the time… he has very great charisma, you had great respect for him. He’s won everything. When he says something, you listen.”
Aftonbladet states Mourinho had a ‘major impact’ on Lindelöf’s career and there’s another individual who also left a great mark on the defender. His agent Hasan Çetinkaya.
“I mean… he’s someone who meant a lot to me in my career, and even on a personal level. Hasan is… haha … he has a great personality. He works with me, and he wants me to get to the next level. He gives everything to me,” the United defender said about his representative.
“He is very important to me, then there is another one that acts in the background and that helps with basically everything, Hasan’s right hand.
“I’m very close to him, he means everything to me, he fixes everything around, both for Maja and me. I am very grateful for that. I don’t want to tell you his name, but he’s there.”
